Racial And Ethnic Residential Segregation Across The United States

This open access book provides new findings on and insights into trends and patterns in residential segregation between racial and ethnic groups in the United States. It draws on new methods that make it possible to investigate segregation involving small groups and segregation patterns in nonmetropolitan communities with greater accuracy and clarity than has previously been possible. As one example, the authors are able to track residential segregation patterns across a wide selection of nonmetropolitan communities where Black, Latino, and Asian populations are small but can still potentially experience segregation. The authors also track White-Latino segregation from its inception when Latino households first arrived in non-negligible numbers in new destination communities and then document how segregation changes over time as the Latino population grows over time to become larger and more established. Finally, this work shows how segregation of Latino and Asian households is fundamentally different from that of Black households based on the much greater role that cultural and socioeconomic characteristics play in shaping White-Latino and White-Asian segregation in comparison to White-Black segregation.

Examines the extent of changes in racial and ethnic residential segregation from 1980-2000.

Policy-makers tend to view the residential segregation of minority ethnic groups in a negative light as it is seen as an obstacle to their integration. In the literature on neighbourhood effects, the residential concentration of minorities is seen as a major impediment to their social mobility and acculturation, while the literature on residential segregation emphasises the opposite causal direction, by focusing on the effect of integration on levels of (de-)segregation. This volume, however, indicates that the link between integration and segregation is much less straightforward than is often depicted in academic literature and policy discourses. Based on research in a wide variety of western countries, it can be concluded that the process of assimilation into the housing market is highly complex and differs between and within ethnic groups. The integration pathway not only depends on the characteristics of migrants themselves, but also on the reactions of the institutions and the population of the receiving society. Linking Integration and Residential Segregation exposes the link between integration and segregation as a two-way relationship involving the minority ethnic groups and the host society, highlighting the importance of historical and geographical context for social and spatial outcomes. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

Data recently released from the U.S. Census Bureau's Census 2000 provide an opportunity to examine the extent of changes in racial & ethnic residential segregation in the last 2 decades of the 20th century. This study describes the extent of, & changes in, segregation over the 1980-2000 period. Because segregation is much more of an issue in urban environments, the report focuses on segregation patterns in metro. areas across the U.S. Chapters: Data & Methods; 1980-2000: The Residential Segregation of: America Indians & Alaska Natives; Asians, Native Hawaiians, & Other Pacific Islanders; Blacks or African Americans; Hispanics or Latinos; Cross-Group Comparisons; & Appendixes. Maps. Numerous charts & tables.

The Fair Housing Act of 1968 outlawed housing discrimination by race and provided an important tool for dismantling legal segregation. But almost fifty years later, residential segregation remains virtually unchanged in many metropolitan areas, particularly where large groups of racial and ethnic minorities live. Why does segregation persist at such high rates and what makes it so difficult to combat? In Cycle of Segregation, sociologists Maria Krysan and Kyle Crowder examine how everyday social processes shape residential stratification. Past neighborhood experiences, social networks, and daily activities all affect the mobility patterns of different racial groups in ways that have cemented segregation as a self-perpetuating cycle in the twenty-first century. Through original analyses of national-level surveys and in-depth interviews with residents of Chicago, Krysan and Crowder find that residential stratification is reinforced through the biases and blind spots that individuals exhibit in their searches for housing. People rely heavily on information from friends, family, and coworkers when choosing where to live. Because these social networks tend to be racially homogenous, people are likely to receive information primarily from members of their own racial group and move to neighborhoods that are also dominated by their group. Similarly, home-seekers who report wanting to stay close to family members can end up in segregated destinations because their relatives live in those neighborhoods. The authors suggest that even absent of family ties, people gravitate toward neighborhoods that are familiar to them through their past experiences, including where they have previously lived, and where they work, shop, and spend time. Because historical segregation has shaped so many of these experiences, even these seemingly race-neutral decisions help reinforce the cycle of residential stratification. As a result, segregation has declined much more slowly than many social scientists have expected. To overcome this cycle, Krysan and Crowder advocate multi-level policy solutions that pair inclusionary zoning and affordable housing with education and public relations campaigns that emphasize neighborhood diversity and high-opportunity areas. They argue that together, such programs can expand the number of destinations available to low-income residents and help offset the negative images many people hold about certain neighborhoods or help introduce them to places they had never considered. Cycle of Segregation demonstrates why a nuanced understanding of everyday social processes is critical for interrupting entrenched patterns of residential segregation.

This powerful and disturbing book clearly links persistent poverty among blacks in the United States to the unparalleled degree of deliberate segregation they experience in American cities. American Apartheid shows how the black ghetto was created by whites during the first half of the twentieth century in order to isolate growing urban black populations. It goes on to show that, despite the Fair Housing Act of 1968, segregation is perpetuated today through an interlocking set of individual actions, institutional practices, and governmental policies. In some urban areas the degree of black segregation is so intense and occurs in so many dimensions simultaneously that it amounts to "hypersegregation." The authors demonstrate that this systematic segregation of African Americans leads inexorably to the creation of underclass communities during periods of economic downturn. Under conditions of extreme segregation, any increase in the overall rate of black poverty yields a marked increase in the geographic concentration of indigence and the deterioration of social and economic conditions in black communities. As ghetto residents adapt to this increasingly harsh environment under a climate of racial isolation, they evolve attitudes, behaviors, and practices that further marginalize their neighborhoods and undermine their chances of success in mainstream American society. This book is a sober challenge to those who argue that race is of declining significance in the United States today.

Segregation is one of the starkest social realities of contemporary societies. Though often associated with explicitly racist laws of the past, it is a phenomenon that persists to this day and is a crucial element for understanding group relations and the wellbeing of different populations in society. In this book, Eric Fong, Kumiko Shibuya, and Brent Berry provide a thorough discussion of the evolving complexity of segregation in its variety and variations. The authors focus not only on past trends and the development of segregation measures, but also the current state of affairs, and demonstrate the connections between the segregation of racial/ethnic groups and immigrant communities, along with poverty concentration. By taking a wide, cross-cutting view, the authors identify commonalities and differences in the causes, mechanisms, and consequences of segregation. Spatial and social segregation together perpetuate and reinforce the unequal distribution of resources among racial and ethnic groups, which in turn can have positive and negative consequences for individuals and groups. This critical overview of segregation will be a valuable and insightful resource for students of sociology, geography, and ethnic studies, as well as those keen to get a handle on this persistent challenge to equal and inclusive societies.